A fond farewell…
Having previously covered seasons 4, 6 and 7, it would be remiss of me not to return to Inside No. 9 to provide coverage of this ninth and final season. What a way to bow out…
Boo to a Goose – 8/10
This opening episode sees a group of passengers on the London tube system trapped underground following an electrical fault. An ostentatiously raucous drag queen (Steve Pemberton) and her companion Cleo (Susan Wokoma), a tightly wound science teacher (Mark Bonnar), a timid nurse (Philippa Dunne), a conspiracy theorist (Joel Fry), a submissive married couple on their way home from the cinema (Reece Shearsmith and Siobhan Finneran), a young, homeless man (Charlie Cooper) and an eccentric elderly gentleman (Matthew Kelly) become embroiled in an argument about surveillance, stereotypes and collective action.
I know lots of people like to watch these episodes and try to figure out the twist. Well, I’d be utterly amazed if anyone cracked this one. It’s an ingenious set up, packed full of witty dialogue and hilarious one-liners (most of which are delivered by Pemberton and Shearsmith themselves), without ever losing sight of the mystery at the centre of the story. Who has stolen the nurse’s bag and why? With a collection of actors as talented as this, it’s hard not to create a slam dunk and so it goes that this is a top tier 9 episode that is made all the more satisfying for the fact that it absolutely sticks the landing. It’s also nice to see former British TV mainstay Matthew Kelly back on screens and delivering a genuinely eccentric and weird performance. One of a number of interesting casting choices that this show has made over its nine season run. It also works as a lovely companion piece to The Midnight Meat Train (a film so bizarre that I like to shoehorn it in at every opportunity).
The Trolley Problem – 8.5/10
While Shearsmith and Pemberton are probably mostly associated with comedy, their mutual love for the horror genre is also apparent in all of their work. While they often resist the call to go full dark, when they do, it tends to result in something special. The Trolley Problem is no exception.
The set up is simple. We open with Blake (Pemberton), a psychotherapist with a dubious degree from ‘Cambridge’ framed on his desk, comforting Drew (Shearsmith) having coaxed him down from jumping off the side of a bridge to his certain death. I won’t reveal any more than that as this is a particularly twisty episode, but rest assured, nothing is as it seems.
While the impressive array of guest stars that Inside No.9 can attract is one of the things that makes it special, these two handers that only feature Pemberton and Shearsmith often result in some of the finest episodes (A Quiet Night In, Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room) and The Trolley Problem allows the show to deliver possibly its darkest conclusion yet. This is probably the only episode of Inside No. 9 in which I didn’t laugh once. This is not a criticism. Indeed, it’s extremely satisfying to see the show expand into full blown horror – a genre that it has flirted with in the past.
The Trolley Problem is a jet black, emotionally gruelling episode that demonstrates just how accomplished this show has become. Exquisite television.
Mulberry Close – 5/10
Inside No. 9 has mostly steered clear of telling stories based around new technology, probably as Pemberton and Shearsmith wish to avoid comparisons with that other great anthology series of the modern era, Black Mirror. Mulberry Close takes the humble smart doorbell and turns it into a device to tell a story of rising tensions and nosy neighbours.
We begin with the arrival of Damon (Shearsmith) and his partner Val (Vinette Robinson) into a middle-class suburban neighbourhood. The unflinching eye of the Ring Doorbell also introduces us to passive aggressive couple Kenny (Pemberton) and Sheila (Dorothy Atkinson) as well as local dog walker Larry (played by Psychoville alumni Adrian Scarborough). The story plays out with an uncharacteristic predictability and there is a nagging feeling that Mulberry Close never really evolves past the concept stage of evolution. That being said, Atkinson is incredible as Sheila, we’ve all met a Sheila, and Shearsmith is always fun to watch when he’s playing someone at the end of their tether.
Mulberry Close is a solid if unspectacular episode of 9 that will be remembered as one of their weaker entries.
Ctrl Alt Esc – 7.5/10
It is surely inevitable that Inside No 9 would eventually do an escape room episode. It was probably also inevitable that the episode would be excellent. And here we are…
Jason (Pemberton) is an escape room obsessive who brings his family along to a new escape room to celebrate his eldest daughter Millie (Kalli Tant) leaving for university. While Millie is moody and reluctant to join in, her younger sister Amy (Maddie Evans) has enough enthusiasm for the both of them but there is something going on between Jason and his wife Lynne (Katherine Kelly) that is causing ripples throughout the family unit. The escape room is controlled by Doug (Shearsmith) an officious but seemingly benign presence often appearing as a disconnected voice through a speaker system.
Despite the premise being ripe for a 9 episode, the focus here is more on the family relationships and the episodes conclusion. The room itself is fairly unremarkable. As for the ending… it’s a tough watch. Tony Krantz’s under seen 2007 horror film Sublime plays in the same sandbox as this episode, but the execution here is much more haunting.
The Curse of the Ninth – 7.5/10
M.R. James has always been the preserve of the other League of Gentleman alumni Mark Gatiss with his ghost story for Christmas series. The Curse of the Ninth, however, is Inside No. 9’s most Jamesian entry. That means a period piece. A stately home. An outsider. And a lingering sense of dread.
Shearsmith is the outsider here playing a piano tuner obsessed with composer Nathaniel played by Eddie Marsan. Elsewhere, Natalie Dorner is the lady of the manner, Hayley Squires a truculent maid and Pemberton rounding out the cast as an eccentric family friend (spectacularly named Dickie van Aas).
While this is ostensibly another horror adjacent entry, there are plenty of laughs here too, mainly delivered in the form of cheeky puns and double entendres delivered by Dormer. The set up is delicious – that every composer becomes cursed after writing their 9th symphony – and the execution is suitably dreadful. The apparition, wisely only viewed in dispatches and always in the dark, is terrifying, and the episode marks the first out and out ghost story since The Bones of St. Nicholas at the start of season eight.
Plodding On – 7/10
How do you end one of the most beloved TV shows ever made? It’s a particularly difficult conundrum for an anthology series because you don’t have established characters to lean on or character arcs to wrap up. Plodding On circumvents this by going meta.
The whole episode takes place at the wrap party of Inside No. 9‘s final episode. We have Pemberton and Shearsmith playing themselves as well numerous returning characters from previous episodes (too many to list here but most notably Tim Key, Katherine Parkinson and Robin Askwith). This allows the duo to acknowledge the end of the show without having to do the heavy lifting of creating new characters. It’s a trick they have tried before with The League of Gentlemen: Apocalypse in which all of the show’s creators play an exaggerated version of themselves. And so it is here, with Pemberton as an ambitious liar and Shearsmith his snivelling sidekick. There are plenty of inside jokes and references to previous episodes but there is a nagging feeling that once you strip away the fan service you are left with a fairly middling episode. That being said, Plodding On is probably the funniest episode of this final season and it is also heartwarming and poignant in places. I suppose writing an episode fitting for all that came before is an impossible task and when taking that into consideration, this final instalment is probably as good as it could have been.
If this is to be the end of Inside No. 9 (they tease the possibility of one off specials in this episode), it will be sorely missed, dare I say more so than even The League of Gentlemen. Across 55 episodes and nine seasons, Shearsmith and Pemberton have created a TV show that has transcended the medium to become a much beloved phenomenon. It’s been a pleasure.